Wednesday, 29 March 2017

There’s stumbling out of the gate, and then there’s what Republicans just did on health care.

They came up with a substantively indefensible bill, put it on an absurd fast-track to passage, didn’t seriously try to sell it to the public, fumbled their internal negotiations over changes — and suffered a stinging defeat months after establishing unified control of government.

There has been a lot of different finger-pointing after the collapse of the bill, and almost all of it is right. This was a party-wide failure.

[...]

The operating theory wasn’t that the merits of the bill would get it over the top, but speed and sheer partisan muscle. The House wanted to pass it in three weeks, which would be a rush for a bill naming a court house. Ryan gambled that he could get his fractious caucus to rally in record time because — unlike his frustrated predecessor as speaker, John Boehner — he had a president of his own party at his back.

And none other than “the closer,” a President Trump whose calling card is his skill at deal-making. But you can’t be a closer if you don’t know anything about the product. President Trump knew the health-care bill was wonderful and beautiful and his other characteristic boosterish adjectives. Otherwise, he was at sea. He wasn’t knowledgeable enough to engage in meaningful negotiations. One of his interventions — to try to placate House conservatives by stripping out the so-called “essential health benefits” of Obamacare — may have lost more moderates than it gained votes on the right.

Tuesday, 28 March 2017

Top Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee spurned a request from the panel’s Democratic ranking member Monday night to have chairman Devin Nunes recuse himself from an investigation into Russia and intelligence gathering related to the Trump transition.

[...]

Asked whether he was considering Schiff’s request, which was later echoed by Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Nunes said “no.”

Some of his fellow committee Republicans were more colorful in their rejection of calls for his recusal.

“Jesus would not be a satisfactory chairperson to some of my Democratic colleagues,” South Carolina representative Trey Gowdy told TWS. “They would complain about his hair.”

Let’s see: Not a member of Congress. Not a US citizen. No security clearance. He’s the last guy I’d have chairing an investigation about foreign influence on our government. The hippie hair is the least of it.

The Senate voted 97-2 on Monday in favor of allowing a vote later this week on the ratification of Montenegro’s NATO membership. Senate aides reportedly said they expected a final vote in the Senate on Tuesday or Wednesday and said they expect Montenegro’s NATO membership to get the required two-thirds majority.

Progress on Montenegro’s accession bid had been held up in Congress by two senators.

[...]

The only two “no” votes came from Republican Senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee, both of whom had blocked the vote for several months.

Paul warned Washington against spreading itself too thinly when its military is involved in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen. “Montenegro in NATO will antagonize Russia while doing nothing to advance US national security,” he said.

“Most Americans can’t find Montenegro on a map,” Paul said in a sharply worded Senate speech. “Are you willing to send your kids there to fight?”

Senator, most Americans can’t find Kentucky on a map. Shall we expel you from the Senate?

Monday, 27 March 2017

I’d rather the federal government jail local pols who create “sanctuaries” for illegals on conspiracy charges than deny the American citizens who live in them the equal protection of the law by siphoning off federal funds.

That’s the argument many of the louder voices on the right are shouting. In the story they tell, the speaker of the House is fully responsible for the GOP’s failure to pass an Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill last week. President Trump should walk across a Havana ballroom like Michael Corleone in “The Godfather Part II,” kiss Ryan on the mouth and say, “I know it was you, Paul. You broke my heart.”

A Canadian gold coin named “Big Maple Leaf” which bears the image of Queen Elizabeth II was stolen in the early hours of Monday morning from Berlin’s Bode Museum.

The coin is made out of pure gold, weighs about 100 kilos and has a face value of around $1 million.

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Given the high purity of the gold used in the coin, its material value is estimated to be $4 million.

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Police said it was probably stolen by a group of thieves who entered the museum undetected through a window, possibly with the help of a ladder.

“Based on the information we have so far we believe that the thief, maybe thieves, broke open a window in the back of the museum next to the railway tracks,” police spokesman Winfrid Wenzel said. “They then managed to enter the building and went to the coin exhibition.

“The coin was secured with bullet-proof glass inside the building. That much I can say,” Wenzel added.

“Neither I nor the Bode Museum can go into detail regarding personnel inside the building, the alarm system or security installations.”

I suspect those arrangements are about to change.

My photo of the coin:

For the record: I wasn’t in Berlin this morning. Oh, check under the sofa cushions, there are usually some coins there.